Trinamool’s celebrity candidates steal the show in Bengal polls

Kolkata, May 19 (IANS) Trinamool Congress’ celebrity nominees stole the show while those of the BJP failed to make their mark as votes for the West Bengal assembly polls were counted on Thursday.

For the Bharatiya Janata Party, actress-turned-candidates Roopa Ganguly and Locket Chatterjee failed to turn the table on their opponents, but greenhorn Baishali Dalmiya, daughter of veteran cricket administrator Jagmohan Dalmiya, and sitting legislator and actress Debasree Roy brought cheers for the Trinamool.

The Trinamool which galloped to victory on Thursday pounding the Left-Congress alliance out from the poll race also thrashed the BJP which had fielded its own posse of stars.

Despite their fiery speeches and aggressive stance all through the electioneering process, Ganguly and Chatterjee had to contend with the third spot in the Trinamool’s clean sweep in their respective constituencies.

Chatterjee suffered a similar fate. Once close to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the actress had quit Trinamool to cross over to the BJP. Contesting from Mayureshwar in Birbhum district, Chatterjee garnered 35,329 votes while Abhijit Roy of the Trinamool won the seat with 89,210 votes.

Continuing the winning trend for the Trinamool, Baishali retained her party’s seat in Bally elbowing out former state minister and CPI-M aspirant Saumendranath Bera by over 15,000 votes in the triangular fight against the Marxists and the BJP.

In her second consecutive electoral battle, Debasree, who had in the past got plaudits for essaying the role of Satyavati in Chopra’s “Mahabharat”, yet again humbled CPI-M veteran Kanti Ganguly by a margin of over 1,000 votes.

But on the flipside, the Trinamool’s Barjora candidate, actor Soham Chakraborty despite putting up a tough fight (86,257 votes) lost out by a whisker to CPI-M’s Sujit Chakraborty. Only 616 votes made the difference between the two.

Popular Bangla band singer Soumitra Roy, who had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls for the Trinamool, again let down the party in the Chanchal seat.